You may or may not have heard about the debate last week between Bill Nye (a/k/a the Science Guy) and Ken Ham (a/k/a [bleep]) regarding evolution and creationism. Well, it was sort of a debate and it was sort of on that topic. From what I’ve read, Nye took the opportunity to make an impassioned and eloquent plea for science education, while Ham tried to focus on how evolution can’t prove how life began (no one ever said it could.) I don’t know if anyone had their minds changed, but I do appreciate that Bill Nye is out there fighting the good fight. Ham was going to claim this as a win no matter what happened.

An interesting thing happened after the debate, though. A BuzzFeed staffer asked creationists in the audience to write down questions, comments, etc., which he published as a listicle entitled “22 Messages From Creationists To People Who Believe In Evolution.”

I admit that the questions/comments mostly just annoyed me, because it’s the same thing again and again, e.g. “Are you scared of a Divine Creator?” Luckily, it’s not even remotely up to me to respond to these questions. The responses people have written have ranged from the derisive to the snarky to the earnestly helpful. I’ll start with that last category.

Phil Plait, of Bad Astronomy fame, took the time to answer all 22 questions on Slate, treating the questions, and the questioners, with respect and dignity:

These questions are fairly typically asked when evolution is questioned by creationists. Some are philosophical, and fun to think about, while others show a profound misunderstanding of how science works, and specifically what evolution is. I have found that most creationists who attack evolution have been taught about it by other creationists, so they really don’t understand what it is or how it works, instead they have a straw-man idea of it.

Because of this, it’s worth exploring and answering the questions presented. Some could be simply answered yes or no, but I’m all about going a bit deeper. With 22 questions I won’t go too deep, but if you have these questions yourself, or have been asked them, I hope this helps.

I had no idea what some of the questions were even asking (noetics?), and Phil’s answers gave me a better understanding of the science.

Other responses were less gracious, and I do not fault anyone for it. The information about evolution is all out there, waiting. People who continue to accept the sort of fluff that leads to questions and comments like these have either been spoon-fed dogma and lies, or they have made a conscious choice to ignore the science.

Amanda Marcotte took a shot at answering the questions, but the pull of snark is strong. In response to “If we come from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?” she replied:

If you come from your parents, why do you still have parents? If that sounds like a dumb question, consider that it’s exactly the same question.

PZ Myers saw the questions and despaired for the future, which is what he does and we love him for it.

Greg Fallis went question by question and pointed out the logical, factual, and scientific errors, not to mention multiple incorrect uses of “their” and “there.”

My personal favorite is B. Spencer’s unapologetically snide set of answers at Lawyers, Guns & Money, including:

If we come from monkeys then why are there still monkeys?

Because all this poo isn’t going to fling itself and creationists tire easily.

And:

Are you scared of a Divine Creator?

Yes. John Waters is terrifying.

Finally, ScienceOfSarcasmPodcast posted a gallery to Imgur with “translations” of the questions. Yeah, it’s mean, but as I hear so often from people, the truth hurts.

Photo credit: By Pelf at en.wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.